Hedge fund executives, bankers among top Bernanke visitors: records

DamianPaletta

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- An array of industry leaders, particularly hedge funds and investment bank executives, financial services titans and the top executives at Fannie Mae
FNM, +7.06%
and Freddie Mac
FRE, +2.77%
met with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke during his first year on the job, Bernanke's visitor logs for 2006 and early 2007 show.

Bernanke also hosted meetings at the central bank with 20 different U.S. lawmakers during that time - 11 Republicans and nine Democrats.

His most frequent guest was Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. They met together 12 times at the Fed, including one meeting on June 22, just three days after Paulson was nominated to head Treasury.

Allan Hubbard, director of the White House National Economic Council, met with Bernanke nine times at the Fed. The visitor log shows that three of those meetings were lunches.

Details of Bernanke's more than 250 different visitors, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, represent vastly different backgrounds and industries. Bernanke's predecessor, Alan Greenspan, also met with a wide swath of visitors as he juggled his central banker and bank regulator responsibilities.

"Federal Reserve officials find it beneficial to hear perspectives on markets from a wide range of practitioners, academics, forecasters and other specialists," said Federal Reserve Spokeswoman Michelle Smith.

Robert Dugger, managing director of the Tudor Investment Corp. hedge fund, met with Bernanke on July 14, 2006. Dugger is a former Fed economist and the Senate Banking Committee's former chief economist.

Lloyd Blankfein met with Bernanke on July 10, 2006, just a few weeks after becoming chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs.

Richard Syron, chairman and chief executive of Freddie Mac, met with Syron on April 7, 2006, July 11, 2006.

Daniel Mudd, chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, met with Bernanke on April 18, 2006, one month before his company was fined $400 million by federal regulators for widespread accounting failures.

Syron and Mudd sought similar audiences with Greenspan. Bernanke, Greenspan, and other Fed officials have urged Congress to pass legislation that would create tougher oversight of the companies, alleging that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose unique risks to the financial markets.

Bernanke also met with the chairman of one of the country's largest banks and the chief executive officer of one of the world's largest oil companies - William Harrison, chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co., on Jan. 3, 2007, and John Browne, chief executive officer of BP PLC, on May 3, 2006, accompanied by Ross Pillari, president and chief executive officer of BP America Inc.

Bernanke also met with numerous trade group executives during his first year in office, including the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Home Builders, the American Bankers Association, and America's Community Bankers.

Bernanke Frequently Met With Lawmakers, Regulators

The Fed Chairman also met with lawmakers and federal banking, securities and commodities regulators.

All of the lawmakers he met with were either on panels that oversee financial services or the U.S. budget.

For example, Bernanke met with Sen. Richard Shelby on March 16, 2006 and Sept. 28, 2006, when the Alabama Republican was still chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Prior to the change of control in Congress last November, Bernanke hosted four Democrats and nine Republicans for different meetings. Since November, Bernanke has met five times with Democrats and just twice with Republicans.

Bernanke also met with federal regulators, including Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan on Sept. 5, 2006 and Dec. 11, 2006, and, on May 19, 2006, with Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and Commissioner Roel Campos.

Bernanke's visitor log only shows the names of people who were cleared through security to meet specifically with the Fed chairman. It is possible Bernanke met with other people at the Fed who were cleared to meet with other Fed officials.

Also, the Fed redacted more than 20 names from the public records because they alleged those names were private for either personal reasons, or because the names qualified for "commercial" or "financial" exemptions.

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